


Happiness

by olivemartini



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Don't Like Don't Read, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Post-The Blood of Olympus, Romance, Sad, guy/guy, percy jackson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2015-05-02
Packaged: 2018-03-28 18:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3864985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivemartini/pseuds/olivemartini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just some Nico/Will fluff.  (Nico's just so sad all the time I wanted to write him a fic where he's happy)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happiness

At five years old, Nico was taught that he was something to be ashamed of. That what he was feeling, the naturalness of the attraction he felt, was sick and disgusting. When he was five and leaned over to kiss the cheek of his best friend (Jonah, he remembers, with the curly red hair that he was so fascinated by) all the mothers and babysitters had awed over it, but there had been an underlying current of discomfort. Even at five years old, he noticed it. The way Jonah's old brother looked disgusted. How when Jonah returned the kiss, there was no murmur of how cute it was rippling through the on lookers, just Jonah's mother yanking the two apart. He didn't understand, not even when his mother pulled him into her lap later, and explained that boys can go that stuff with girls, but not with their guy friends. With their guy friends, they should run around and wrestle and play with their toys.   
At seven years old, Nico still found boys pretty. He felt no need to pretend not like girls like the other boys, or to hold the hand of his "girlfriend" on the playground. He still didn't understand why his mother had insisted to keep this part of him hidden, why Bianca shushed him or pulled him away whenever he was getting to friendly with another boy (he always wondered how he could be too friendly when he was seven, but looking back, he understood why she was protective).  
At seven years old, he began to understand why what he was feeling had to be hidden. Why it was wrong. Why it was dirty. Why he couldn't ever, no matter what, let anything no. At seven years old, sitting on a pew and squirming in his uncomfortable Sunday best, he listened to the preacher lecture on how "man should not lie with man" and "homosexuality is a weakness of the flesh" and how people like him, gay men, were "sick in the head, disgusting, an abomination, and can change if they want." He didn't understand. He never had another choice. He never once thought that he should be thinking girls were pretty, thinking of having a future with a girl, not a guy. How was it a choice when he never had another option?  
At seven years old, he also listened to his mothers friends go on about how two men on their block had been found together. Together, together. How they couldn't believe, how they never suspected, how disgusted they were. How sick it was, how they would disown their children if they ever had a hint of that, how that would have been straightened out with a few beating as a child. The worst part? His mother agreed. He heard about how the house of one of these men had been set on fire, how the child of another had been beaten so bad while walking home from school that he had to go to the hospital. They broke his nose, and his arm.   
And he wasn't even the gay one.  
In a way, Nico thought that he was lucky to have been put in the Lotus Hotel and Casino when he was. He still thought there was something wrong with him. He hated himself for it, felt sure that everyone saw it and were too polite to say anything. But at least now, while he knew it might disgust some people, they would not ambush him on the walk to his cabin and beat him to death.

 

"You should wear bright colors." Even though Nico recognized the voice as Will's, he still whirled around in surprise, self conscious of the fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt. He knew that Will wasn't ever going to think about him like that (unless he magically became a girl) but he didn't feel like letting him know exactly how scrawny and pale he was. Not to mention the scars covering his back from his time in Tarturus.   
"My dad's the god of the underworld." He pulled the sweater over his head. "Black is kind of my thing."  
"I know." Will grinned, flopping down on the bed. "You alright? You look upset."  
"I'm fine." He twisted the skull ring on his finger, knowing that Will knew this meant he was upset. It's been two years since the war, and surprisingly, Nico and Will have been hanging out a lot. "Is it off putting? The whole death thing? Black and skulls and stuff?"  
"Maybe it should be, but I don't think so." Will was looking him up and down, studying him so closely that Nico felt his face start to turn red. "It's kinda hot." Nico's eyes met his hopefully, and WIll rushed on. "From a girl's perspective, of course."  
Nico felt himself deflate. Will didn't like him, not like that. He was too thin, to into death, he can raise skulls from the ground for Hades sake! (Once, when he accidently walked in on Will changing, he had split the ground in two and raised five very angry skeletons, then passed out from the effort it took to raise them up. He and Will don't talk about that much.) He was damaged goods. Will Solace was light. Sunshine. He was healing and happiness and made Nico feel alright and normal just sitting beside him. Sometimes, the way he talks, Nico thinks that Will could like him too, might feel the butterflies churning in his stomach at Nico's smile (he's really the only one who ever sees it), might wonder what it would be like if they kissed. Nico's been wondering about that a lot.  
Maybe it was because Nico had been thinking about the whole "gay is NOT okay" thing a lot lately. Maybe it was because Will was looking at him like he was cute, but refused to say anything like it. Maybe it was that around Will Solace, Nico was unable to think things through, and said stupid things. Whatever the reason, the two words popped out of his mouth without his permission.  
"I'm gay." Will looked up at him and blinked once, seemingly confused. "Like, really gay. Really, one hundred percent into dudes."  
"Okay."   
"Okay? That's it?" Now it was Nico's turn to be confused. "It's.. you shouldn't be this... why aren't you upset? I'm gay! Like, I could possibly have been checking you out this whole time gay!"   
At this, Will got off the bed, taking two steps closer, until Nico was against the wall. Nico scrunched his eyes close, preparing for the blow but thinking that if he closed his eyes, he could pretend that it wasn't from Will... from anyone but Will.... but the hit didn't come. He slowly opened his eyes, seeing Will standing in front of him.   
"I'm not going to hit you." Will said. "Gods, Di Angelo, I'm not going to hit you." He took him by the hand and led him back to the bed, sitting down and leaning against the head board. "Okay. That's it. It's fine that you're gay."  
"It shouldn't be." Nico was looking at his hands. "It's sick. I'm sick. It's wrong. That's what I was told when I was growing up." He repeated the things he had been thinking earlier, about kissing Jonah and the men and his mother agreeing she would beat it out of them. About Bianca hiding it.   
"Nico..." Will's voice was full of pain, like he was sorry for him. "It's not sick. You're not sick, or wrong. You're good. Right. Perfect. And you want to know something?" There was a wonderful moment when he took Nico's hand in his, holding it tightly like Nico would fly away. "I'm gay too."  
"What?" The butterflies were trying to burst out of Nico's stomach.  
"Totally gay. And you know something else? I've kind of been totally into you for a while." Now it was Will's turn to blush. "But you never made a move, so I thought you didn't like me. I guess you still might now, but..."  
Nico shook his head. "That's not it. I-I like you. A lot. But, I just thought you weren't like that, didn't think you would be... even if you were, I didn't think you would like the freak that raises skeletons. And, and you're like, really out of my league."  
Will rolled his eyes. "Have you seen yourself Nico? You're hot." They fell into comfortable silence, still holding hands. "Hey Nico?"  
"Yea, Will?"   
"You like me, right?" Nico nodded yes, and Will pounced on him, two years of waiting put into one long kiss.  
"This is right, Nico." Will looked into Nico's eyes as they pulled apart. "This is okay. You deserve to be happy. And don't ever call yourself a freak, because you're not. You're perfect." Without waiting for a response, perhaps thinking Nico wouldn't dare to argue, he leaned over to kiss him again.  
Happy.  
Gay can mean happy, too.  
And this, being with Will, this was nice. He liked it. For the first time in a long time, he was happy.


End file.
